Sword Smith
by Britedark
Summary: Who is this youki sword smith, who created the powerful swords, Tensaiga and Tessaiga? A collection of bits and pieces centered on Totosai. #4: Smith and Flea realize that Kagome has returned...
1. To Forge Tensaiga

_**Disclaimer:**__ This story is based on "Inuyasha," copyrighted by Rumiko Takahashi. No infringement of copyright intended or implied._

**To Forge Tensaiga**

Totosai should have known better than to grumble about a lack of proper challenge to the Inu no Taisho. How else, could he have ended stuck in the middle, between his boasts, and a near-impossible request?

It usually took him three days to forge a sword from a youkai's fang or claw, to transform the youki into a suitable blade.

It took him three times three days to forge Tessaiga, to wrestle control of the enormously-potent youki of a Daiyoukai, to forge not just the youkai's imcomparable strength into a blade that would have almost unlimited power, but to forge in his compassion and will to protect as well.

Tensaiga took three times three times three days.

One times three days to control and bind the wild fury of the Meidou Zengetsuha, which had threatened to tear the young Tessaiga apart.

Three times two days to add the second fang, and then cleave the blade in two, leaving one blade a perfect match for its original form, the other hiding the subdued, alien attack within its heart, crackling with equal potential to its twin.

Six times two days to find a way to transform the blade into the form the great youkai desired. Not a blade that reflected what a youkai could have created from his very being, had he the sheer power. But, rather, in this instance, something near to a mirror of its twin. One sword to protect the weak by destroying the powerful. Its twin, to protect the weak by saving life itself. One blade that could cut through almost anything. The other which could not cut physically, at all, save for the spirits of the other world.

Two swords, unalike in appearance, unalike in powers, but each the other's equal…

... ... ...

The two blades, his finest work, lay before the exhausted smith. Kneeling on the other side, the Inu no Taisho studied the two dissimilar blades for a long time, before reaching for the tattered one. He drew the rusty, pitted blade from its sheath. It transformed, into a glittering, golden fang. Eyes narrowed, the dog youkai concentrated. Nothing happened. The black, starry blade did not appear. With a grunt of satisfaction, the youkai re-sheathed the blade, and set it down.

With a flicking glance at the smith, the Inu no Taisho took up the second blade; that in appearance was the very perfection of the sword-maker's art. Gently, he drew the blade, and closely examined it. It reflected his face, having the seeming of the highest quality of a human's steel blade, with the edge honed beyond razor sharpness. Pulling a single hair from his bangs, the youkai carefully balanced the white length on the upturned edge. It hung there for a brief moment, and then fell to the earth, still in one piece, as if the sword had never been in its path. Cupping the back of the blade with his other hand, the Inu no Taisho closed his eyes. The sword pulsed once, flickering with a pale, blue light for several seconds.

Re-sheathing the blade, he set that one down, next to its twin. "I will not test Tensaiga on you, Totosai," he said, smirking.

Totosai only gave him a level look. "You are satisfied, lord?"

"Very." The Inu no Taisho took both blades, and slid them through his sash. "Name your desire, sword-smith—I will fulfill it, be it within my power."

Totosai snorted. "I beg you only to _never_ present such a challenge to me again. I cherish my life, and do not wish _your_ desires to be my death."

The other youkai chuckled. "I would never do that, when the first challenge is not yet finished." He stood up. "Now set up your fire, you old flame-breather. I've brought a pair of young boars as token payment—surely those will enliven your wilted countenance?"

And so they did.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I'm on a Totosai kick this month (December 2010). I've written three drabbles so far, so I decided he deserved his own collection. (Also check outo chapter 39 in "Little Bits.")

This piece was originally written for the Issekiwa community, for the prompt "Middle." The short version, which included only part one of this longer piece, was originally published on December 8, 2010.

To a certain extent, this was written in response to different views of Tensaiga expressed in the manga. Early on, when Tensaiga is introduced, and we see how much Sesshomaru doesn't care for it, an angry Totosai is telling Sesshomaru that the blade is his finest work, maybe better than Tessaiga. Late in the manga, during the Meidou arc, Shishinki is sneering at Tensaiga as only a castoff of Tessaiga-a view which Sesshomaru seems uninclined to dispute. Well, that hardly makes sense to me - Shishinki would be unlikely to know the truth about the two swords, and any sword which can heal itself after being broken ... well ...

So this basically continues what I started several years ago, with "The Once and Future Black Tessaiga."

(posted 12/14/2010).


	2. To Forge A Heart

_**Disclaimer:**__ This story is based on "Inuyasha," copyrighted by Rumiko Takahashi. No infringement of copyright intended or implied._

**To Forge a Heart**

Totosai pulled the blade out of the quenching vat with his tongs, and gave it a long, narrow-eyed survey. It's youki surged and pulsed, eager and restless to be about what it was being made to be.

"Hmph," he muttered to himself, lowering the blade. At least the fang was no longer throwing sparks in an outraged attempt to destroy him, every time his hammer or fire came down. The youki had yielded at least that much to his command, and had begun its transformation in purpose. The lower edge of the long, slightly curving blade already glinted with sharpness, though he had yet to start the process to put a true edge on the blade.

Tessaiga-to-be understood very well its new function—_to cut._

Other features the Inu no Taisho desired, however, were not yet present.

The passion to protect. The need for its owner to have _compassion,_ and the desire to protect _human life._

Most youkai blades were only crafted to be responsive to a youki of sufficient strength to handle the blade; or to respond only to the youkai whose flesh and youki had been used to create the blade in the first place.

But the Inu no Taisho wanted more for his blade.

Totosai sighed and glanced up. He had moved his forge outside the cave after the very first effort to heat the taiyoukai fang. He hadn't wanted to further risk the destruction of his home. Now, the full moon rode high, but obscured by a high mist. A good sign for the next step, he decided. The inu youkai, as with the wolves, tended to follow the moon; their youki rising and falling with its cycle. And the obscuring mist was even a better sign. Water was the balance to his nature. He could not make swords without water's ability to quench the fire he raised.

From an inner pocket, the smith pulled out an object he had been reluctant to use, though it had been the inu youkai's idea. Stepping back over to the flat block he used as an anvil, he set the blade down, and then he tossed the object, muttering beneath his breath as they floated down.

Two hairs, closely entwined, settled down on top of the glimmering blade. One was white, one was black. One came from the head of a youkai, the other came from a human. Totosai studied the pattern, acknowledging silently that the dog lord's instincts were good. The hairs would carry the pattern he needed to set into the blade's core being: caring and compassion; protection of the weak; and the ability to bond to a being who carried the blood of both youkai and human. The fang carried the power, but the twined hairs would create its 'heart'…

Totosai raised his mallet, drew a deep breath, and began the most important part of Tessaiga's forging.

* * *

**Author's Note:** This was written for the Inuyasha Themes community on LiveJournal, for the prompt "Mist." It was originally posted on December 14, 2010. (12/30/2010)


	3. Lesson Time

_**Disclaimer:**__ This story is based on "Inuyasha," copyrighted by Rumiko Takahashi. No infringement of copyright intended or implied._

**Lesson Time**

It wasn't luck that kept him living, given all the youkai who wanted weapons they shouldn't have who searched for him, ready to cause his demise if he defied them. Locating his forge near the heart of a volcano wasn't entirely because he was a fire youkai: it was only the first layer of defense. He had many more, including one of such long standing that even he frequently forgot it was only a role. How many people, mortal or youkai, would believe that a rude, forgetful, crack-brained, ancient-seeming youkai could possibly still have the skill to create a powerful sword, let alone the strength?

Sesshomaru, unfortunately, was well aware of the facts.

When all other layers of defense failed, be a coward. What good would courage and defiance be to a sword-smith? He wasn't ready to end up dead.

Certainly not at Sesshomaru's hands. Not when the pup still had things to learn, whom his much more to be dreaded father (even dead!) expected Totosai to provide with the appropriate weapon, when the time came.

So, for now, he fled.

Not without purpose, however.

There was that _other_ pup of the Inu no Taisho. The pup, who now had his hands on Tessaiga, and according to Myoga, had shown at least the potential to control the powerful sword. Time to check out the younger pup, and see how badly he was misusing the blade.

It was time for some lessons.

Quite probably, for _both _pups…

* * *

**Author's Note: **Who is Totosai, really? This piece speaks more directly to the question animating this series than the first two. It was originally posted to the Inuyasha's Unsung Heroes community on Live Journal, for the prompt "Luck", on December 8, 2010. It won the contest.

(posted 12/30/2010)


	4. She's Back

**_Disclaimer:_**_ This story is based on "Inuyasha," copyrighted by Rumiko Takahashi. No infringement of copyright intended or implied._

* * *

**She's Back**

The shout woke up Myoga from his latest filling if flat meal. Scrambling out of his nest of dark brown hair on Momo's poll, what the flea saw was Totosai's hammer descending straight towards him.

Myoga yelped, leaping out of the way just in time. "What do you think you're doing, Totosai!" he yelled at the top of his tiny voice. "You could have crushed me!"

"Hah!" Perched on the tip of the Momo's horn, Myoga saw Totosai grinning and doing a little jig, completely ignoring him. "I knew she'd come back! I knew it! Look at them! Just look at them!"

Movement behind the flea caused him to turn, and his buggy eyes bugged out even more as he saw the scene projected by Momo's three eyes. Gone for three years—gone forever, he had thought, Kagome stood beside the well, held in Inuyasha's arm, her eyes locked with the hanyo's.

"She's back," he whispered. Memory of the taste of her tangy, effervescent, and dangerously-spicy, reiki-laced blood rose, and he quivered with sudden avarice and glee. "She's back!"

"Yep." Myoga flinched as the hammer dropped again, then protested when the image vanished.

"Hey!"

"What? You some kind of voyeur?" Totosai had his attention on the flea now, smirking. "You can take Momo if you want—just send him back when you get to the village."

"But, how'd you know-?"

Totosai snorted. "You forget who I am, Myoga? That boy is bonded so tight with that blade—you think when he knew Kagome was back, the sword didn't know, too? Tessaiga is practically howling with glee." He sniffed. "Now get on with you, if you're going."

"Oh, yeah. Thanks." Myoga slid back down to the thick thatch of hair on the bull youkai's forehead. "Let's go, Momo."

His snout quivered in anticipation. If they were that happy, he might be able to snack without being flattened…

Chuckling to himself, Totosai sauntered back to his forge. Life was apt to get more interesting again.

* * *

**Author's Note:** This piece was written for the LiveJournal community FirstTweak, for the prompt, "What the Flea Saw." It was originally published on May 22, 2011.


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